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It’s that time of the year again when students get their SPM and STPM results. Nerve wrecking as it may be, getting good grades is just half the story. The other half has to do with getting suitable courses in universities or colleges and scholarships that comes with it. All your student life, nay, your entire life (and in some cases, the entire family’s) has been geared towards this moment.
Students would have put in hours after hours of hard work for years to get the best possible results. A fantastic result is a cause for joy for the entire family but that’s just the beginning of the next battle; proper placement. There, things are not entirely in the hands of the students. Higher forces are at play.
This brings back memories of my own school days. My secondary schooling was at SM La Salle Klang, a school rich in it’s tradition of excellence and discipline. I remember parents who enrolled their children in La Salle used to brag about it, as if it was a kind of achievement on its own. Although most well-to-do parents in Klang preferred to send their children to La Salle at that time, it had a good mix of students from upper, middle and working class families.
At La Salle , we were treated equally and were judged based on merits. There were children of state exco members, YB’s, business tycoons and laborers alike. Your religion, race or family background didn’t count for much (unless of course there was a fund-raising). We were constantly reminded that our ticket to a bright future depended on how well we performed academically, coupled with good discipline and some extra curricular achievement for a good measure. We, in La Salle Klang played hard and studied harder.
I had a long time rival in school, Maniyamuthan. We were both in the same class from Form One to Form Six. We were friends but were also fierce rivals when it came to exams. Most of the time Maniyamuthan came out first in class and I used to come in second. However, in SRP (now PMR) I upped him by becoming the top student in school by scoring 8As. Not to be out-done, he came storming back in SPM as the top student with 9As and I came in a distant second with only 7As (although I came out first in the trial!).
We were both from working class families. Therefore, our hopes for a bright future hinged on us obtaining excellent results and getting a ‘suitable’ course on scholarship. There were many other bright students from all races in my school and we all grew up as brothers. However, imagine the despair, hurt and sense of unfairness when none of the non-bumiputra top students were offered JPA Scholarship after SPM.
Our Malay brothers who had good or even average results were offered scholarships to continue their studies overseas. Maniyamuthan and I, despite being the top two students in school didn’t qualify for the JPA Scholarship.
Some of the Malay students who were offered scholarships were deserving but many weren’t; by ordinary standards. Students who did half as well and whose parents were directors of large corporations or high ranking civil servants were offered to further their studies in the USA whilst we, the non-Malay students who had given our all, were consigned to Form Six.
Students from La Salle did their Form Six at Sekolah Tengku Ampuan Rahimah which was just across the street. There were only two Malay students in our Bio-Math’s class and even they were from another school. All our Malay ‘peers’ from La Salle had gone overseas on scholarships. What we were left with were two Malay students from another school who didn’t make the cut. Things were never the same for anyone of us after that; both the Malays and non-Malays.
It was not the fault of our Malay brothers and most of them genuinely felt sorry for us that we weren’t offered scholarships despite having better results. It was the failing of a system that chose one over the other based on race and not merits.
It’s been twenty four years since; regrettably the same cycle is still being played out today in schools all across Malaysia. Imagine the number of students that would have been affected by this form of partiality through the years. A whole generation of Malaysians would have grown up being taught to strive to be the best but would have ‘learnt’ the hard way that the best does not necessarily win.
The policy makers might have had a national agenda of getting more Malays into government sponsored foreign university programmes to balance up the perceived racial inequality. However, they failed miserably on another important front. They failed to nurture and care for all the nation’s children equitably. The policy has left almost half of its children with a sense of alienation and disenchantment.
With that, they killed the spirit and trust of those children that knew only this country as their own and who would have laid down their lives in her protection.
The system was also unjust in that it robbed the dignity of the truly deserving Malay students who would have nevertheless earned their rightful place in a merit based system. Excellence both in the Malays and non-Malays were punished by rewarding the mediocre.
Any effort towards national integration will be futile and a mere gloss over if the educational policy is perceived to be discriminatory. Excellence must be justly rewarded and our children must feel that they are on a level playing ground to enable them to bond seamlessly.
For the survival of this nation and to nurture the spirit of this country, the government must treat all its children equally, regardless of race. Equal educational opportunity must be given to all. Inequality in this field will only serve to diminish the credibility of our educated population.
Education is the life-line of a Nation. This lifeline should never be chocked by the debris of mediocrity. Let the best student be given the best opportunity. Without it, this nation will never achieve greatness.
Murugesan Sinnandavar
Students would have put in hours after hours of hard work for years to get the best possible results. A fantastic result is a cause for joy for the entire family but that’s just the beginning of the next battle; proper placement. There, things are not entirely in the hands of the students. Higher forces are at play.
This brings back memories of my own school days. My secondary schooling was at SM La Salle Klang, a school rich in it’s tradition of excellence and discipline. I remember parents who enrolled their children in La Salle used to brag about it, as if it was a kind of achievement on its own. Although most well-to-do parents in Klang preferred to send their children to La Salle at that time, it had a good mix of students from upper, middle and working class families.
At La Salle , we were treated equally and were judged based on merits. There were children of state exco members, YB’s, business tycoons and laborers alike. Your religion, race or family background didn’t count for much (unless of course there was a fund-raising). We were constantly reminded that our ticket to a bright future depended on how well we performed academically, coupled with good discipline and some extra curricular achievement for a good measure. We, in La Salle Klang played hard and studied harder.
I had a long time rival in school, Maniyamuthan. We were both in the same class from Form One to Form Six. We were friends but were also fierce rivals when it came to exams. Most of the time Maniyamuthan came out first in class and I used to come in second. However, in SRP (now PMR) I upped him by becoming the top student in school by scoring 8As. Not to be out-done, he came storming back in SPM as the top student with 9As and I came in a distant second with only 7As (although I came out first in the trial!).
We were both from working class families. Therefore, our hopes for a bright future hinged on us obtaining excellent results and getting a ‘suitable’ course on scholarship. There were many other bright students from all races in my school and we all grew up as brothers. However, imagine the despair, hurt and sense of unfairness when none of the non-bumiputra top students were offered JPA Scholarship after SPM.
Our Malay brothers who had good or even average results were offered scholarships to continue their studies overseas. Maniyamuthan and I, despite being the top two students in school didn’t qualify for the JPA Scholarship.
Some of the Malay students who were offered scholarships were deserving but many weren’t; by ordinary standards. Students who did half as well and whose parents were directors of large corporations or high ranking civil servants were offered to further their studies in the USA whilst we, the non-Malay students who had given our all, were consigned to Form Six.
Students from La Salle did their Form Six at Sekolah Tengku Ampuan Rahimah which was just across the street. There were only two Malay students in our Bio-Math’s class and even they were from another school. All our Malay ‘peers’ from La Salle had gone overseas on scholarships. What we were left with were two Malay students from another school who didn’t make the cut. Things were never the same for anyone of us after that; both the Malays and non-Malays.
It was not the fault of our Malay brothers and most of them genuinely felt sorry for us that we weren’t offered scholarships despite having better results. It was the failing of a system that chose one over the other based on race and not merits.
It’s been twenty four years since; regrettably the same cycle is still being played out today in schools all across Malaysia. Imagine the number of students that would have been affected by this form of partiality through the years. A whole generation of Malaysians would have grown up being taught to strive to be the best but would have ‘learnt’ the hard way that the best does not necessarily win.
The policy makers might have had a national agenda of getting more Malays into government sponsored foreign university programmes to balance up the perceived racial inequality. However, they failed miserably on another important front. They failed to nurture and care for all the nation’s children equitably. The policy has left almost half of its children with a sense of alienation and disenchantment.
With that, they killed the spirit and trust of those children that knew only this country as their own and who would have laid down their lives in her protection.
The system was also unjust in that it robbed the dignity of the truly deserving Malay students who would have nevertheless earned their rightful place in a merit based system. Excellence both in the Malays and non-Malays were punished by rewarding the mediocre.
Any effort towards national integration will be futile and a mere gloss over if the educational policy is perceived to be discriminatory. Excellence must be justly rewarded and our children must feel that they are on a level playing ground to enable them to bond seamlessly.
For the survival of this nation and to nurture the spirit of this country, the government must treat all its children equally, regardless of race. Equal educational opportunity must be given to all. Inequality in this field will only serve to diminish the credibility of our educated population.
Education is the life-line of a Nation. This lifeline should never be chocked by the debris of mediocrity. Let the best student be given the best opportunity. Without it, this nation will never achieve greatness.
Murugesan Sinnandavar
